Not too long ago we wrote about Aranim Media Factory and how the online and social gaming field is changing in the MENA region, so I decided to look for other companies region that are taking a crack at developing games in the region. Which led me to discover Wizards Production a company funded by IV holdings and founded in December 2008 to address the gap in the Arabic Focused Massive Mulitplayer Online (MMO) Social Gaming.
Shortly after they’re launch Wizards Production acquired the Canadian GO3 to broaden its services offering to English speaking internet users in the ME, Europe and North America. Currently their product portfolio include 15 online games that have attracted more than 700,000 registered users with more than 1,000 new users per day generating more than 45 million page views per month.
The company management consists of the following key players:
Afif Toukan – CEO
He has over 10 years of working experience consulting in Mobile, Web and TV integration in the ME. He created and Senior Managed the brand Maktoob Mobile Services (Curently Yahoo ME) and is a 22 year veteran of the gaming industry.
Sohaib Thiab – COO
Over 6 years of working experience in the fields of web 2.0 specializing in social networking as well as online marketing. Managed the gaming initiative in Maktoob.com creating concepts and launching several browser based games. Sohaib has a number of awards under his belt including the Queen Rania Entrepreneurship Award and other presitgious global awards.
Hussam Hammo – CPO
Over 6 years of working experience in the fields of graphic design, website development, web 2.0 and social networking. Created and managed the social networking site in Maktoob.com (currently Yahoo ME), and As7ab.com. He too is a winner of the Queen Rania Entrepreneurship Award among others.
Emad Darwish – Creative Director
He has 10 years of experience in the field of web development and is certified in Visual Communications as well as being experienced in creating game related websites.
Wizards Production’s games have generated a lot of interest, especially since they develop stand alone and social games in both English and Arabic. They’re ArabianHitman Netlog App which was launched on Netlog in mid 2009 quickly became the biggest game over the Arabic version of Netlog.
Wizards Production have different types of ways to generate revenue and depending on the game or platform they use any of the following methods:
Freemium: Game users purchase credits from Wizards to be used to purchase upgrades, weapons and access special features of the game
Advertising: Selling of standard online banners throughout the site.
Branding: Marketers will embed their brands and stores in the game itself allowing users to directly interact with the brand
Licensing: White label games for third party portals